Decays of mesons produced in cosmic ray induced air showers in Earth’s atmosphere can lead to a flux of light exotic particles which can be detected in underground experiments. We evaluate the energy spectra of the light neutral mesons ${\pi }^0$, $\eta$, ${\rho }^0$, $\omega$, $\varphi$ and $J∕\psi$ produced in interactions of cosmic ray protons and helium nuclei with air using QCD inspired event generators. Summing up the mesons produced in the individual hadronic interactions of air showers, we obtain the resulting fluxes of undecayed mesons. As an application, we re-consider the case of millicharged particles created in the electromagnetic decay channels of neutral mesons.

中文翻译：

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空气淋浴中的介子产生和寻找轻的奇异粒子

在地球大气中的宇宙射线引起的空气簇射中产生的介子衰变会导致光外来粒子的通量，可以在地下实验中检测到。我们评估轻中性介子的能谱${\pi }^0$, $\eta$, ${\rho }^0$, $\omega$, $\phi$ 和 $J∕\psi$使用 QCD 激发事件发生器在宇宙射线质子和氦原子核与空气的相互作用中产生。总结在空气簇射的单个强子相互作用中产生的介子，我们得到了未衰变介子的最终通量。作为一个应用，我们重新考虑在中性介子的电磁衰变通道中产生的毫带电粒子的情况。